Commentariat

The BBC should realise that the reason Blue Peter’s ratings have collapsed is nobody wants to watch it.

It was entirely predictable that Israel’s ferocious assault on Gaza in recent weeks would shift the country’s centre of political gravity sharply to the right ahead of…

Public outcry over bonuses at the Royal Bank of Scotland is tempered by Gordon Brown’s attempt to cap RBS bonuses at £25

The fall of the Shah was an epic, a morality play or a Greek tragedy if he had been a truly great man rather than just another American satrap, complete with US fighter aircraft, a swamp of corrupt officials and a sadistic intelligence service. When one of my colleagues suggested that the Iranian revolution could be compared to the fall of the Bastille and of the Tsar – he quoted Charles Fox’s line about “how much the greatest event it is that ever happened in the world” – I thought his trust in Ayatollah Khomeini’s liberal intentions was born of wishful thinking.

The BBC should realise that the reason Blue Peter’s ratings have collapsed is nobody wants to watch it.

The Australian newsreader Brian Naylor presented popular nightly news
bulletins for the Seven and Nine television networks in Melbourne during a
broadcasting career which spanned more than 40 years. His warm yet
authoritative style made him a celebrated figure in Melbourne, and one of
the most-watched newsreaders in Australia. His domination of Melbourne news
was referred to as “the Brian Factor”. No matter what changes the other
television channels introduced, they were unable to shake his omnipotence.

It’s a serious allegation. Liberty’s Shami Chakrabarti alleges that the government have sexed up the evidence for an extension of detention without charge to 42 days. Her claim comes because ministers have cited the example of two people alleged to…

It ain’t over ’til the fat lady sings…
Yesterday I wrote about the decline of the New Labour project and what I consider to be the over-riding factor that has driven that decline. I also pointed out that, while I fear it might be over for Labour come the next election, the fat lady has [...]